UN General Assembly asks for High Level meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases

Yesterday the United Nations General Assembly decided to convene a high-level UN meeting in September 2011 on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. Heads of State and Government will be attending

Thursday 13 May the UN General Assembly concluded its consideration of the agenda item 114, Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit. It passed the draft resolution A/64/L.52 introduced by the representative of Trinidad and Tobago (on behalf of the Caribbean Community). The resolution “Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases” was according to NGO reports from the meeting co-sponsored by some one hundred countries.

The resolution draws up the background by pointing to various international health documents related to non-communicable diseases. It is also recognizing “the enormous human suffering caused by non-communicable diseases” and that these diseases are leading to increasing inequalities between countries and populations, thereby threatening the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals,”

Further in the text of the resolution the General Assembly is “noting the call to consider integrating indicators to monitor the magnitude, the trend and socio-economic impact of non-communicable diseases into the Millennium Development Goals monitoring system,”

Of interest to the alcohol field is the mentioning with appreciation in the text of the various

World Health Assembly resolutions and decisions. This is including the evidence-based strategies and interventions to reduce the public health problems caused by the harmful use of alcohol. The UN resolution also points to alcohol abuse as one of the prominent risk factors for non-communicable diseases.

In its action points it:

1. Decides to convene a high-level meeting of the General Assembly in September 2011, with the participation of Heads of State and Government, on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases;

2. Also decides to hold consultations on the scope, modalities, format and organization of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, with a view to concluding consultations, preferably before the end of 2010;

3. Encourages Member States to include in their discussions at the Highlevel Plenary Meeting of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on the review of the Millennium Development Goals, to be held in September 2010, the rising incidence and the socio-economic impact of the high prevalence of non-communicable diseases worldwide;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session in collaboration with Member States, the World Health Organization and the relevant funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, on the global status of non-communicable diseases, with a particular focus on the developmental challenges faced by developing countries.